Arnold Named Director of Institute for Mathematics
and Its Applications


27 March 2001 -- Douglas Arnold, distinguished professor of mathematics, has been named director of the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications at the University of Minnesota. He will succeed Walter Miller, who has been director of the institute since 1997.

Established in 1982 with the support of the National Science Foundation, the institute ranks among the leading centers for the mathematical sciences in the world. Its mission is to identify problems and areas of mathematical-sciences research related to challenges faced by other sciences and industry, to demonstrate the impact of mathematics and statistics on other disciplines, and to encourage the engagement of mathematical scientists with those areas of application.

Arnold was elected chair of the institute's Board of Governors in November 2000 and he had a long association with the institute, including two years in residence and experience on the Computational Programs and Resources Advisory Committee before joining the Board of Governors.

"The institute has had an enormous impact on applied mathematics during its first 20 years," Arnold said. "As the leading institute in the world dedicated to enhancing the role of mathematics in interdisciplinary research, in has helped to bring about lasting changes to the scientific landscape."

Arnold joined the Penn State faculty in 1989. During his tenure he has helped to develop and manage the Penn State MathNet—the departmental computer network serving the research, teaching, and administrative computing needs of faculty, staff, and students. He served as Associate Chair for Computing from 1991 to 1994 and as Interim Department Head in 1995. He works as co-director of Penn State's Center for Computational Mathematics and Analysis, associate director of Penn State's Institute for High Performance Computer Applications, and as a member of the University's Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry. He received the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching at Penn State in 1996, the Teresa Cohen Service Award from the Department of Mathematics in 1998, and the Eberly College of Science Distinguished Service Award in 2000.

Arnold's research interests center around mechanics, numerical analysis, partial differential equations, and the interplay between those areas. His contributions to the design and analysis of algorithms for differential equations are widely recognized; in particular, the numerical simulation of elastic plates and shells. In 1991, he was the first recipient of the International Giovanni Sacchi Landriani Prize from the Academy of Arts and Letters of Lombardy Institute in Milan for his outstanding contributions to the field of numerical methods for partial differential equations. He also studies numerical aspects of gravitational physics, devoting much of his energy to computational relativity, with his long-term aim being the numerical simulation of massive astrophysical events such as black-hole collisions and the resulting emissions of gravitational radiation.

"We are entering a period in which mathematics should become a vital component of many fields and industries in which its presence has been limited; for example, the life sciences and information technology," Arnold said. "In other areas, the level of involvement of mathematics in interdisciplinary research should greatly increase. So, there are a wealth of challenges and opportunities for the institute in the coming years."
 

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